Aquino vetoes Magna Carta for the Poor, calls provisions ‘unrealistic’

MANILA – President Benigno Aquino III has vetoed the Magna Carta for the Poor, saying most of its provisions were unrealistic and were meant only to earn brownie points.

“I can try to be cute and sign this into law. I will look handsome (pogi) if I do that,” Aquino said in an interview aired over state-run Radyo ng Bayan on Monday.

“But I know that the provisions cannot be met by the government,” Aquino said.

The President cited as example the provision on socialized housing for the poor, which would roughly cost P2.32 trillion.

This year’s budget is only a little over P2 trillion, of which P600 billion has been earmarked for socialized housing.

Aquino was also not comfortable that the National Housing Authority can be sued if it fails to provide housing units for indigent people.

“The corrective action for this is to direct our Cabinet social cluster to draw up a substitute measure that we will give to the next Congress and, hopefully, that they will act upon with haste,” the President said. –Dexter San Pedro, InterAksyon.com